Consultations and seaside sports: Puglia's "Health Beaches"

Bringing health care to the most iconic summer destination: the seaside. This is the goal of "Le Spiagge della Salute," a traveling event dedicated to prevention and exercise that this Sunday, after stops in Pescara and Cesenatico, arrives in Puglia: Margherita di Savoia. The event, promoted by ASC - Attività Sportive Confederate, in collaboration with the Italian Beach Resort Union (SIB), and with the patronage of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies, will visit eight Italian seaside resorts, offering residents and tourists the opportunity to receive free medical consultations in dermatology and psychological well-being. In parallel, sports, recreational, and community activities will be offered on the beach. These initiatives "demonstrate the importance of bringing prevention closer to the citizen, making it easily accessible," stated Undersecretary of Health Marcello Gemmato. "Promoting healthy lifestyles and raising awareness about skin health, especially during the summer, is essential to strengthening a widespread and informed culture of prevention. It's important that, alongside physical prevention, psychological well-being is also being emphasized." On Sunday, July 20, from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., a health truck will be operating in Margherita di Savoia, near Lido Apulia, with two counters: a counseling center, in collaboration with the Italian Federation of Psychologists (FIP), and a skin health truck, in collaboration with the Association of Italian Hospital Dermatologists (ADOI). A few steps away, on the beach, specialized staff from the ASC network will be staffing the area dedicated to sports, social activities, and entertainment: water aerobics, Zumba, Pilates, gentle gymnastics, and group dancing. "We're taking advantage of the time when people flock to the beaches to reach them with a message of promoting sports and taking care of physical and mental health," said Cecilia Morandini, national councilor for ASC and CONI. "Italian beach resorts have always been sensitive to issues of well-being and health," added Antonio Capacchione, national president of SIB Confcommercio. "In the face of the rise of invisible ailments, which threaten the psyche and which very often stem from isolation and loneliness, our beaches represent an important safeguard for safeguarding health."